Rep. Wesley Hunt
Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, entered the Republican primary for U.S. Senate on Monday, complicating an already contentious race between two of the biggest names in Texas Republican politics.
Hunt, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has laid the groundwork for a potential run for months. While the second-term congressman spent the summer publicly avoiding the fray between Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, groups affiliated with Hunt dropped some $6 million on ads boosting his profile around the state. And Hunt’s allies have been busy pressing the case that he would carry stronger appeal than Cornyn among the MAGA-dominated primary base, while bringing none of Paxton’s political baggage to the general election.
“The U.S. Senate race in Texas must be about more than a petty feud between two men who have spent months trading barbs,” Hunt said in a statement. “With my candidacy, this race will finally be about what’s most important: Texas.”
A 43-year old former Army captain, Hunt will need to quickly familiarize himself to voters outside his Houston district, as he looks to outpace two opponents who have been elected statewide numerous times. He will also have to overcome the war chest of groups like the National Republican Senatorial Committee — Senate Republicans’ multimillion-dollar campaign arm — which is backing Cornyn and recently discouraged Hunt from entering the race.
Cornyn senior adviser Matt Mackowiak said in a statement that Hunt’s “quixotic quest for relevancy” would only boost Democrats by sparking a more expensive primary “that will endanger the Trump agenda from being passed.” The Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC allied with Majority Leader John Thune, also maligned Hunt’s entry into the race.
“It’s unfortunate that Wesley Hunt has decided to abandon President Trump’s efforts to protect the House majority and instead pursue his political ambitions, also turning his back on the Texans who entrusted him with their vote,” SLF Communications Director Chris Gustafson said. “With every credible poll showing him in a distant third place, the only person celebrating today is a giddy Chuck Schumer.”
But Hunt believes the disapproval of establishment groups will not matter to Texas voters.
“Washington does not get to dictate what happens in Texas,” he said. “Bureaucrats in D.C. do not choose Texas’ leadership; Texans do. This race will be settled by Texans, not entrenched political figures from inside the beltway.”
The Paxton campaign was more receptive to Hunt’s entry.
“We welcome Wesley Hunt to the race,” Paxton adviser Nick Maddux said in a statement. “Primaries are good for our party and our voters, and Wesley and General Paxton both know that Texans deserve better than the failed, anti-Trump record of John Cornyn.”
The most important Washingtonian who could determine the outcome of the primary — President Donald Trump — has not endorsed any candidate.
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Hunt’s decision to run for Senate also creates a vacancy in his 38th Congressional District, which voted for Trump by 20 percentage points last year. The 38th District will become one of at least seven open districts that favor Republicans, between retirements and the creation of new seats via mid-decade redistricting. The glut of competitive primaries will likely drive up ad prices for primary candidates in many Texas media markets, including those running statewide.
It’s fine by me for there to be a massive friendly fire competition for the Senate nomination. If it goes to a runoff and it gets even nastier, so much the better. I don’t really think that materially changes the odds in November, but I figure that chaos is usually to the advantage of the underdog, so bring it on. Hunt is the kind of guy who could have been a substantive member of Congress, someone who served for a long time and had a lot of legislation with his fingerprints on it, but Republicans don’t care about any of that these days. Whatever happens in that primary, it’ll be about vibes and whatever deranged things Trump says between now and then. I doubt he can win, but that’s not my concern.
In terms of electoral performance, the new CD38 is about the same as the old CD38. Hunt got some bonus points as the incumbent, so maybe his departure will make it a tiny bit easier for a Dem to win. Let’s see who comes forward for this seat, and how the current Dems do with their fundraising. If nothing else, I’d like to make the national Republicans sweat this one a little. Daily Kos and the Chron have more.
UPDATE: A few choice quotes from Rep. Hunt from the DMN.
“Texans want somebody who’s going to be an America First freedom fighter,” Hunt said. “They want somebody who’s going to support their Second Amendment rights. They want somebody who’s going to support border security, and they want somebody who endorsed President [Donald] Trump first in the country, before it was cool.”
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Cornyn and Paxton have been trading shots for months, with Paxton questioning Cornyn’s conservative bona fides and Cornyn casting Paxton as ethically unfit for office.
Hunt said the back-and-forth has turned off Texas Republican primary voters, who would see him as a worthy option.
“People are sick and tired of hearing about a blood feud between Ken Paxton and John Cornyn,” Hunt said. “What I have seen from the primary voter in Texas is that they’re looking for an alternative and I’m that guy.”
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Hunt is mounting his first campaign for statewide office, and running in a state as large and diverse as Texas can be challenging. He said his efforts would intensify.
“You have to work hard,” Hunt said. “What I have to do is focus on getting my name ID up statewide, which is what I’ve been doing for the past few months.”
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Hunt said he expects much of the GOP establishment to be against him.
“They’re already against me,” Hunt said. “That means I’m right over the target zone, because the establishment swamp does not pick the leader of Texas. Texans do.”
Hunt said that if elected he would move to draft legislation “to give gun rights back” to Texans and “counteract the gun control legislation” Cornyn helped craft after the Uvalde school shooting.
Cornyn has rejected criticism the bill represented an infringement on the rights of law-abiding American gun owners.
Hunt said Cornyn has been in office too long.
“When John Cornyn first entered into public office, I was two years old,” Hunt said. “The United States Senate is not a retirement community, and it’s time for change, and it’s time for new leadership.”
Hunt said one of the reasons he got into the race is because Paxton isn’t fighting hard enough against Cornyn.
“Ken Paxton is a conservative warrior,” Hunt said. “Nobody’s going to argue with you on that, but the issue is that somebody has to fight for this seat, and you can’t sit back and do nothing.”
Boy, if you could have seen me shaking my head as I read this. I recognize the words he spoke as being English, but they have no meaning. A lot of self-hype and no small amount of self-delusion, but no meaning. Well, I will agree that I’m tired of the Cornyn ads that have been infecting football games, and I dread when Ken Paxton starts running his own. Now I also have to dread Wesley Hunt ads, when all I want to do is watch football. Who’s going to pass a law about that? Not Wesley Hunt, that’s for sure.